SpotX fully acquired by RTL Group for 123 Million Euros

SpotX fully acquired by RTL Group for 123 Million Euros

RTL, a Media Group with broadcast operations in Europe (Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Croatia, Hungary, Spain) and operations in all world with Content Production, just announced this month the full acquisition of the ad tech video company SpotX, a big step, owning one of the main programmatic exchange for video.

The announcement was done on the second quarter results presentation: “RTL Group has agreed with the minority shareholders of SpotX to take full ownership of the company and will acquire the remaining 36.4 per cent shareholding for US-$145 million (€123 million); the transaction is expected to close in October 2017.”

The strategy of RTL for the adtech: “over the past five years we have diversified our revenue streams – investing in rapidly growing digital video and ad-tech businesses, pushing into the production of high-end drama series and developing platform revenue for our broadcasters. The strong set of financial results in the first half of 2017 clearly underline the importance – and the success – of our total video strategy. Despite tough comparatives to the first half of 2016, RTL Group continued to grow its top line and generated a very healthy EBITDA margin of 21 per cent.

At the same time, the challenging development of the TV advertising markets across our footprint is a clear signal to even accelerate our strategy execution. We have just decided to take full ownership of SpotX, a leading global platform for ad-serving and programmatic ad sales. Together with the very experienced management teams of SpotX and Smartclip, we are working on an ambitious growth plan for our ad-tech businesses. This plan includes the close collaboration between SpotX and Smartclip, rolling out their solutions across our operations and scaling up the businesses with further acquisitions and partnerships.”

Smartclip is a Video Private Exchange and SpotX is a private and open exchange. Spotify and other major media groups are currently working with SpotX on programmatic.

Mike Shehan, CEO of SpotX in an email sent to the clients and collaborators, revealed more details of the deal: “Since RTL Group made its first investment in 2014, SpotX has nearly doubled net revenues, almost quadrupled EBITDA, opened seven offices in seven countries and added over 150 new employees. The purchase of the remaining shares by RTL Group is pursuant to the option they negotiated in connection with their initial investment and is based on an enterprise value of SpotX of $404 million on a 100% basis plus net cash.“